Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 27, 2019 Page 57
DEBATE
BORIS JOHNSON and Angela Merkel have one
thing in common — their hair stylist.
BRIAN CHRISTLEY, Abergele, Conwy.
FISH oils have no benefit (Mail)? Try telling
that to the fish.
BEN HIGGS, Aylesbury, Bucks.
THERE have been calls to fine GP surgeries
for closing in the afternoon — why not fine the
thousands of patients who miss appointments?
J. WALMSLEY, Bury, Gtr Manchester.
HOW disgraceful that Prince Andrew took
trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet. Doesn’t
he care about carbon emissions?
DIANE SILVA, Bournemouth, Dorset.
HOSPITAL food is often criticised but I spent
a few months in Frimley Park hospital, Surrey,
and they make the best porridge ever.
NAME AND ADDRESS SuppLIED
IS ARM-WAVING Gary Lineker practising for
conducting the Last Night Of The Proms?
DAVE HAuXWELL, paphos, Cyprus.
I AGREE that wind farms are a danger to
birds (Letters). I used to stand on the beach
and watch the swallows arrive, but sadly they
don’t come any more.
MARTIN GOODENHAM, Thornham, Norfolk.
NO WONDER I didn’t get selected to play
cricket for England. I was bowling to hit the
stumps, not the batsman’s head.
M. CHOATE, Woking, Surrey.
A ROBOTIC tail has been developed to
improve the balance of the elderly (Mail). Will
I be able to wag it when I’m pleased?
BERYL WHITAKER, South Reddish, Stockport.÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷Straight to the
POINT
For permission to copy cuttings for internal management and information
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101, Tunbridge Wells TN1 1WX. Tel: 01892 525273. e-mail: [email protected]Should the state pension age be raised to 75?
I WONDER how Iain Duncan Smith
would feel if he was told his
parliamentary pension would not
be paid until he was too old to
enjoy it. I spent my working life
doing taxing, hard toil before I
retired at 65. It’s easy to sit in an
office in Westminster dreaming up
ways to deprive hard-working
people of their retirement.
IAN NEILL, Reigate, Surrey.
IN THE past, men started work at 15
or 16, worked until 65 and then, failing
health hit them in their late 60s or
early 70s. State pension needed to be
paid out for only a few years. Now,people start work later and live into
their 70s, 80s or beyond. The state
pension is being paid for by fewer tax-
paying years. It needs to be paid out
later so figures balance — a sad conse-
quence of longer life expectancy.
ADEYEMI BANJO, London SE15.
OLDER workers who are forced to
work longer should be rewarded
with an enhanced pension. All that
is needed for the full pension is 35
years of credits. Is it fair to get
nothing for working 15 extra years?
DAVID BROWN, Stonesfield, Oxon.
WHEN my husband Paul and I
married in 1981, we expected hewould claim his state pension at 65
followed by me at 60, six years later.
In the Nineties, it was announced
that the retirement age for women
would be equalised at 65 and since
then my pension age has risen twice,
to 66 and now 67. If it is raised to 75,
my husband will be 82 by the time I
retire. How will I cope with a com-
mute to the office from a care home?
ALISON SpANKIE, Sudbury, Suffolk.
AS A motor mechanic, at the age of
63 I couldn’t face another winter in
a cold workshop, so I retired.
Retiring at 75 might be possible for
those in a cosy office job.
pETE WILLIAMS, Hayes, Middlesex.side? In any case, this is the
EU’s problem. It is the EU
that is scared of cheaper
goods coming across the
border and wrecking its single
market, which will soon be no
concern to us.
R. BRADSHAW,
Cowbridge, South Glamorgan.
AFTER the backstop, will
self-serving, anti-democratic
MPs introduce us to their last
resort — a full stop?
KEITH DuNWELL,
Aberford, W. Yorks.Harvest moan
WHILE I appreciate the good
work carried out by farmers at
this time of year, I do wish
that as they drive along busy
roads they would look in their
mirror and see the traffic they
are holding up behind them. I
was 17th in the queue behind
a slow-moving, unloaded
tractor for three miles.
There were at least three
places where the tractor
driver could have stopped and
let the cars pass him, but he
kept going until he reached
his turn-off.
DEREK WHITING,
Stokesley, N. Yorks.Strictly unfair
I AGREE that Strictly Come
Dancing has turned into
Strictly Come Prancing (Let-ters). I stopped watching the
show when professional
choreographer Arlene Phillips,
who really knew her stuff, was
booted off the judging panel
in 2009 because she was con-
sidered to be too old.
I remember the good old
days of Victor Sylvester’s
Come Dancing Fifties TV
series when all the performers
were in respectable attire. The
men wore black suits and
white shirts while the ladies
were dressed in pretty tutus.
There were no skimpy
outfits, so hardly any flesh was
on display. Strictly Come
Dancing has become far too
tacky and is not family
entertainment any more.
SuE GODDARD,
Luton, Beds.Cutting report
THERE is a proliferation of
violent crime involving gunsand knives, but even so the
police are failing to help
people dispose of dangerous
weapons safely.
While clearing the house of
an elderly relative who is now
in a nursing home, I found two
antique guns and a number
of knives.
When I took them to Nunea-
ton police station, I discov-
ered it was closed to the pub-
lic. I phoned the emergency
number and ask that some-
one come to the front door.
By the time I had concluded
my ranting about inefficiency,
two detectives opened the
door and relieved me of the
offensive items.
ROS BOND,
Fenny Drayton, Leics.Labour in vain
MR CORBYN, I see that you
have applied for the position
of caretaker. The require-ments are as follows: Problem
solving skills. Please provide
details of the last problem
you solved. As you have not
provided any details, that
is a fail.
The ability to supervise
cleaning staff and manage
contractors. Describe your
experience. No details pro-
vided, so that is another fail.
Awareness of health, safety,
security and hygiene issues.
List the courses you have
attended and your scores. No
details — a fail.
Willingness to work flexibly.
On this point, I can see you
are very flexible and are happy
to change your views to fit the
audience, so that’s a pass.
Overall, Jeremy Corbyn, it
is unlikely that we will
employ you as a caretaker.
Best wishes on your
future employment.
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020 7937 7493, including
your full postal address
and telephone number.The schnell seekers
(or why Germans prefer Pilcher to Poldark)
Cornish cream: A German ZDF TV adaptation of Pilcher’s Melody Of LoveDOMINIC LAWSON describes his
recent holiday in Cornwall (Mail) and
how he was struck by the number of
German tourists, suggesting that the
hordes of visitors can be put down to
the influence of TV’s Poldark.
I’ve been visiting Cornwall every
summer for more than 15 years and
the German holidaymakers were out
in force well before 2015, when bare-
chested Aidan Turner first appeared
on our screens in the title role of the
TV series.
If you talk to the German visitors, you
discover the reason they head to
Cornwall is, indeed, TV — but it’s
down to the novelist Rosamunde
Pilcher, best known as the author of
The Shell Seekers, rather than Poldark
creator Winston Graham. The German
TV station ZDF has produced more
than 100 of her stories since 1993 and
nearly all of them are set in Cornwall.
CATHERINE pEpINSTER, London W13.
LAVISH German productions of
Rosamunde Pilcher’s novels, making
good use of Cornish scenery and grand
houses, are staple fare on German TV,
luring a quarter of a million Germans
to Cornwall each year.
MuRRAY HEDGCOCK, London SW14.HOW I agree with Dominic Lawson’s
sentiments about not travellingabroad on holiday, and not just
because of the airport experience. No,
it’s the incomparable beauty of our
country that draws me, mainly to the
Scottish Highlands, to which only the
Swiss Alps come close.
I have enjoyed my visits to Spain,
Turkey, Tunisia and Greece, but the
searing heat, seas full of jellyfish and
scrubby vegetation can’t be compared
to the deep, cool evergreen forests ofScotland, the gentle embrace of the
spectacular mountains and the mist
that hovers in horizontal wraiths like
candyfloss over the stunning lochs.
On my Scottish jaunts I have met
many seasoned travellers who said
they have been all over the world, but
had come back to the beauty of the
Highlands because nowhere else
could compare.
FIONA CRAWFORD, York.Picture: JON AILES/ZDF